This is not my website. That would be www.lovelake.org. This was about art and artists, writings, interviews, audio, video etc. during a certain era of art blogging. Now it is just suspended in the occasional image.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Tomorrow my guest on Art Focus is filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, who made Finding Normal (and is still working on Alien Boy). We'll discuss his two most recent films: a documentary that follows Write Around Portland participants, and a narrative short starring Art Alexakis he made with folks with a dual diagnosis of mental illness & addiction. Both films are screening at PDX's Cinema 21 on Sun, Feb. 28th, 6pm

Sunday, December 20, 2009

My guest on Art Focus this week is Tim DuRoche, who curated at the new Oregon Jewish Museum The Shape of Time: Accumulations of Place and Memory. This exhibition of photography works around Jewish history in Oregon via specific location and public memory. The photographers include Sika Stanton, Dr. Stu Levy, Bobby Abrahamson, Jeff Amram, Dr. William Galen, Carol Isaac and David Latham Reamer.

The new museum just opened and this show is a part of a big program of events and exhibitions. The museum includes a research library and beautiful screening room. The director Judith Margles will also be my guest.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

There can be no coincidence that the Thrift Shop Biennial, as it is called By Charlie Finch, includes 2 Portlanders. Portland, above all, has been the Thrift – well, some call it Vintage – destination for decades.

I lived here in the 70s, when thrift stores lined NW 23rd. It’s where I bought my Rudi Gernreich dress for 2 bucks, my Mod white leather jackets and a ton of frilly blouses to bring in the New Romanticism of the 80s. While living in other cities, I continued to visit Portland, bringing empty suitcases which left barely able to close. And what did I get here? Portland had what San Francisco and New York City could not match.

Not just clothes, but also glorious paper in the form of Fortune from the 40s, Flair from the 50s and Avant Garde from the 60s. I’ve collaged all over the world but it’s amazing how much of the source came out of Portland.

As the years went by in NYC and I worked more in fashion, I wore vintage less. Of course that all changed when I moved back and I have acquired a small collection of simple black dresses, all circa 1960 (and way before this Madmen Craze which I am definitely a part of ). Even the infamous Jeffrey Kyle, who started Magpie and Glamour Gallery and then moved to New York to be a super successful makeup artist, can’t wait to get back here and into the bins.

How this local culture of thrift crosses into contemporary art would be an interesting investigation. Several artists come to my mind immediately and they’re not the ones in this biennial, though of course I am extremely glad to see them there.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Rocksbox is presenting Action Art this month. You can catch these artists in performance: Mathew Green, Michael Reinsch, Sarah Johnson, Alicia Love McDaid and Sean Patrick Carney. It was Patrick Rock, director of Rocksbox, who suggested I host a panel of them all on KBOO as opposed to just interviewing one artist and I liked the idea. Friend and Senior Art Critic for Artnet Charlie Finch gave the show a further spin by suggesting I ask each artist to give a bit of performance on air. They could even riff on each other. This would probably be more fun for the audience than the usual questionnaire and I am looking forward to Art Focus tomorrow. But if you do have a question for the artists, leave it here.